Australian Targets

Friday, June 29, 2012

New research from the University of Adelaide has highlighted the challenges facing the Arabunna people in the north of south Australia who face increased temperatures and a drier climate with global warming that will impact their traditional culture and lifestyle. The traditional Arabunna lands include the Lake Eyre region and also cover the giant Roxby Downs BHP uranium mine.

There will be a doubling of days above 40 degrees celsius by the 2070s with increases of 5 degrees and more. Such change will effect the fragile desert ecosystems and greatly impact the availability of bush tucker and the wellbeing of sacred sites.

June 28, 2012: Up to 300 People gathered on the steps of the Victorian Parliament house to show opposition to new coal projects which would destroy prime farmland and triple Victoria's contribution to greenhouse pollution.

Residents from Bacchus Marsh and south Gippsland attended to show their opposition to new coal mining projects and plans to use an experimental drying technology by Exergen to open up further mining and the export of brown coal.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

The flooding of the Yallourn coal mine since June 5 raises serious issues about energy security in Victoria facing a changing climate and the unwillingness of the Victorian Government to take the hard decisions in diversifying power generation to renewables.

Environment Victoria on Friday 22 June called for an independent investigation into the ongoing problems at the Yallourn mine. The open cut coal mine provides coal to the TRUenergy owned Yallourn power station via conveyor belts. The power station provides 22 per cent of Victoria's electricity, and the mine flooding and disruption to the conveyor belts has reduced power generation capacity by 75 per cent to just one unit operating since June 6 with a small stockpile of coal.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

A US National Research Council report released June 22 concluded that average global sea level is likely to rise two to three times higher within this century than previously estimated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007, with the US west coast being particularly affected at greater than the global average for sea level rise.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Melbourne: Did the earth move for you last night? It did for me. Melbourne experienced one of the strongest earthquakes for many many years. Now consider what it might do if we had a couple of billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) geo-sequested beneath Southern Victoria and under Bass Strait. Because that is what Premier Ted Baillieu and Federal Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson have planned.

Monday, June 18, 2012

A new scientific study published in Global Change Biology raises alarm bells about global climate change and the secondary impact of sea level rise on habitat loss and species biodiversity, especially in the Asian and Pacific regions.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Local Moreland residents presented a signed letter to Federal MP Kelvin Thomson urging the Federal Government to conclude negotiations to replace Hazelwood coal fired power station with clean energy. I attended from Sustainable Fawkner and photographed the event.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Global warming is likely to accelerate release of forest soil carbon say researchers. This is another climate feedback loop. Rising temperatures are likely to accelerate forest soil carbon decomposition leading to more CO2 released into the atmosphere, compounding global warming. Rather than these forests acting as a carbon sink, warmer temperatures may make them a major source of greenhouse gas emissions further contributing to global warming warn the researchers.

"Our results suggest that large stores of carbon that built up over the last century as forests recovered will erode with rising temperatures," said Susan Trumbore of the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry and University of California at Irvine (UCI), who led the research team.

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About Me

Time to leap out of the slowly boiling pot of earth's warming climate
into action on climate mitigation and adaption.
I don't want my children to ask why I didn't act after reading the
scientific reports of climate risks. I write on the
effects of human induced climate change, sea level rise, ocean
acidification, biodiversity loss, environmental and social impacts of
global warming, and climate protests from a Melbourne Citizen
Journalist.

A member of environmental NGOs and community groups for 30 years in Australia, currently living in Melbourne. I have been a Citizen journalist for the Indymedia network in Australia and worldwide from 2000, as an editor and contributor with Australia Indymedia and the global features collective. Since 2013 I have contributed many stories to Margot Kingston's citizen journalism website: nofibs.com.au. (See my article archive) I also post photoessays to Flickr and videos to Youtube and edit wikipedia as user Tirin. My website is takver.com where I can be contacted through the feedback form, the most reliable way to contact me. I can also be contacted through facebook and on twitter as @takvera.